Chapter 35 Chapter Thirty-Five

A rusty mailbox leaning over the side of the road.Puller drove past the mailbox and the dirt road that led to the house.There are jungles on both sides. He was surprised that such a place also had an address that could be located by GPS.Big Brother really controls all the information. ①Big Brother: A character who does not appear but is everywhere in the political fables published by the British writer George Orwell in the 1940s.He is the leader of the fictional Oceania and a symbol of power.The country's popular slogan is "Big Brother is watching you," meaning the government is constantly watching the public, both openly and covertly.Westerners often refer to the concept of "Big Brother" when criticizing government surveillance scandals and privacy violations.

After driving about 400 meters, he stopped the car, got out into the jungle, and walked back towards the west in the direction he had just passed.He hid behind a row of trees and watched the little house.Far away, a rattlesnake is using its unique sound to warn uninvited guests who enter here. Puller didn't move, just squatted there and watched the little house intently. There was an old truck parked in front of the house.Some basic parts of another car are on the side of the house.There appears to be a garage behind the house.The only door was closed.The place appears to have been unoccupied for quite some time.It's not quite dark yet, so the light inside the house should be okay, although the surrounding trees cast a hazy shadow on everything here.

There is no sound.nobody. He continued to squat there, thinking about what to do. If there were people here, they lived so far from the murder scene that they were unlikely to be witnesses.But they might know something, like the note said. In this way, there are nothing more than two possibilities: someone intends to provide him with clues, or someone intends to harm him.It could be that Dickie and his partners are out for revenge, or it could be that someone trying to get in the way of solving the case will come after him. Puller has changed the phone's incoming ringtone to vibrate.It did vibrate.

He glanced at the caller ID, lowered his voice and picked up the phone. "Where are you, Pooler?" Cole asked. "At that address. In the woods east of the house. How about you?" "I'm in the woods west of the house." "Great, coincidence. See anything? Nothing on my side." "I didn't see anything either." "Do you know who lives here?" "have no idea." "There is no name on the mailbox." "What are you going to do?" "Find out why we're here." "how do you want to do it?"

"Don't complicate things too much just yet. I'll approach the house from the east, and you from the west. We'll stop at the edge of the woodland, and we'll talk to each other." Puller put away his phone and walked forward. The M11 pistol was already in his hand, the muzzle pointed forward.He figured Cole's King Cobra revolver was doing the same thing west. A minute later his phone vibrated again. "Arrived at the scheduled location," Cole said, "now what?" Puller didn't answer right away.He scanned the scene in front of him in a grid-based manner segment by segment.The Taliban and al-Qaeda guys that he had a lot of dealings with were smart and they found ways to lure American soldiers into ambush traps.They have the ability to make everything around them not look ominous.Children, women, and small pets.

"Puller?" "Give me a minute." He took a few steps forward. "Hey, is anyone here?" no answer.He didn't expect anyone to answer. He took two steps forward, completely clear of the trees at the edge of the jungle.But instead of facing the house directly, he hid behind the old truck. He turned to the phone and asked, "Did you see me?" "I see, I'm not sure." "Is there anything suspicious over there?" "No. I don't think it's inhabited here. In fact, the house is falling down." "Been here before?"

"Just been around somewhere else. I didn't even notice a path like that in the past. What do you think all this is about?" "Stay where you are. Let me see what's going on." Puller put the phone back and moved forward until he could see the porch in front of the house.He watched carefully, up and down, left and right, then he stared back at the lower part of the porch and took a scope from his jacket pocket.It had been in that backpack too, and Puller had brought it with him when he arrived. Puller raised the scope to his eyes, adjusted the lens distance, and everything in the porch was immediately recognizable.Up, down, left, right, and then he was still staring down the porch.

He took out his phone and held it between his ear and shoulder. "Lie down, don't move." "See what? What do you want to do?" "If it's what I think, you'll hear it clearly in five seconds." "Puller—" He had already put the phone away. He attaches the scope to the muzzle of the M11 pistol. He glanced around again. "Hey, I'm John Pooler. You asked me to come up here. I'd like to talk to you." He waited five seconds.These guys really thought he was going straight to the front door? He raises his gun.Under the guidance of the scope, the muzzle of the gun was pointed at the floor of the porch.

He fired three times.Chipped floor pieces flew up.He heard a thump as metal struck. It can only mean one thing: he's right.He bent down. The door was blasted open.The fragile and dilapidated wooden door panels couldn't withstand the bombardment of the shotgun at all.Anyone standing in front of the door will be blown to pieces. The so-called anyone should have been me, Pooler thought. "Oh, God!" Puller looked to the left and saw Cole look first at him, then at the hole in the door, then back at him. "How do you know there's a trap here?" she yelled to Puller.

"The wood on the floor in front of the door is new. They've put a pressure plate under it and run the wires inside the house to the trigger of the shotgun. The muzzle of the shotgun is set at belly level. You probably heard me, The bullet hit their platen." He stepped away from the cover of the truck, "I still don't understand how they thought I was going to wander over to their door and blow the shotgun apart." "I'm glad you're smarter than they think." She also walked over here. Puller suddenly saw it and ran towards her.He swoops and hits Cole in the stomach, knocking her off the ground.They fell heavily to the edge of the jungle, and within two seconds the old truck exploded with a bang.One of the truck's front wheels hit the ground within twenty centimeters of them.Debris from cars rained down all around them.Puller pinned Cole down with his body.A long strip of rubber lashed his hind leg.It hurts, but it can't do any serious damage, leaving a blood mark, that's all.

The truck's flames blazed.Puller understood the problems that would arise.He grabbed Cole, put it on his shoulders, and ran into the jungle.Seconds later, the truck's fuel tank exploded again, and the second round of shock waves scattered the wreckage of the car again. Puller placed Cole behind a large tree away from the wreckage of the truck.After the rain of debris fell, he poked his head out from behind a tree to take a closer look. "How do you know?" Cole sat up panting heavily. "A tripwire pulled between two bushes." "Somebody's clearly trying to kill you. Tricks on the truck. Tricks on the door. If one goes wrong, the other will kill you." She looked around, trembling.This is obviously not caused by the cool night wind. "My ears keep ringing like a church bell." Puller didn't look at her, but stared at the wrecked truck. "Are you all right, Puller? Are you hurt?" He shook his head. "Then what's wrong with you?" "I should have found that tripwire before you touched it." "But you found out just in time." He looks back at her. "I didn't do well." "I'm going to send some people over to scout the scene," Cole said, "and the fire department. If it gets to this woods, it's going to be a nightmare." "There's a tray of fire hose hanging on the outside wall of the house. As long as the hydrant can get water, I can put out the fire." "What if there are still some organs hidden?" "If I still miss it like I did just now, everything deserves it." "Pole, you haven't lost your eye at all." Pooler didn't take her word for it. "Does the police station have any experts in explosives?" "Landry Monroe knows a little bit. But there's a retired expert from the Bureau of Firearms and Explosives living out of town who I can commission to investigate." "I would have done it differently. This case requires a wide range of professionals." Cole started calling.Puller hooked up the hose and directed the jet of water at the fire on the wreck of the truck.Ten minutes later, two teams of people drove over with a fire truck each.Landry Monroe said on the phone that he was on his way.Kerr contacted the retired specialist and arranged to have him picked up right away. After the firefighters took over the rest of the blaze and quickly doused the wreckage of the truck, Puller pointed to the house and said to the officers: "If it were me, I would never approach this monster at this time. If I did , and I'll send an active robot in there to have a look before any panting guys get near it." "The state police have something like that, I'll make a call," Kerr said. After she finished the call, Pooler said, "Well, I think we're going to a dinner party." "Do you still want to go to the dinner?" "Yes, I want to go." "Do you have clean laundry in your car?" "Always have." "Then we'll go over to my house and have a wash so I can change too. My house is closer to Trent's than your hotel." They walk to their cars.The police officers who came to investigate the scene stood as far away as possible from the house and the exploding car. When they got to the curb, County Sheriff Pat Lindeman stood leaning against the right side door of his Ford.After wiping his face with the handkerchief, he spat on the ground again. "An exciting time for Drake," he told Puller and Kerr as they approached. "Too exciting," Cole replied. "You saved me the trouble of having to appoint a new sheriff, Puller. I owe you that." "I almost failed to save her." “The result is what matters,” Lindemann said, looking out at the wreckage of the truck through the trees. “You made some people feel uncomfortable. Did they leave a note for your hotel?” "I slipped it in through the crack of the door when I was taking a shower." "You mean they're watching you?" "It seems so." "What do you two think of all this?" "There is no clear view yet," Cole said. "But this is not just business. What they did has directly threatened my personal life. So as long as I live, I will spare no effort to capture them." Bring it to justice, Sheriff." Lindemann nodded and spat again. "Smoke allergy. I've never had it before," he asked Puller. "Do you want us in the police department to provide you with some protection?" "No, I'm fine." "You figure it out. Well, it's time for me to go. My wife has prepared dinner for me." "Take care of yourself, Sheriff," Cole said. After his car drove away, Puller asked, "You don't want to take over from him? He seems to have lost his mind." "He's a good officer. But he's been in the business for over thirty years, and I don't think he's prepared for a case like this to come up at the end of his tenure." Cole opened the car door and said, "I already know about you helping Louisa at the hotel. You did a great job." "She needed help, so I helped her. No big deal. How is she?" "I don't know, I haven't bothered to call the hospital yet. But without you, she's dead." "do you know her?" "Everyone knows Louisa. Very nice person." "It's a pleasure to help a good man," Puller murmured. "Fate doesn't usually treat nice people very fairly." Cole puts a hand on Puller's shoulder. "About the bomb tripwire, I hope you stop blaming yourself, Puller." "If something like this happened to me while I was serving abroad, the lives of my entire squad would have been reimbursed." "But we're still alive." "That's true." He replied sullenly. Puller got into his car and set off after Cole's.